Liberal 'netroots' convention will test Democratic activists

McClatchy reports:

Activists in the liberal blogosphere face a crossroads: They had tremendous success in 2008 helping to turn voter anger into votes for Democrats, but persuading Congress and the White House to adopt their agenda is much harder.

"There's definitely a frustration there," said Raven Brooks, the executive director of Netroots Nation, the Internet liberals' leading voice.

Starting on Thursday, Netroots Nation will convene for four days in Las Vegas. There its members will quiz House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., among others, about why Washington doesn't move more quickly to end the Afghanistan war or give more help to the millions who are out of work.

They'll probably be told that (a) Washington works in complex, deliberate ways, and one should be happy to achieve 80 percent of one's goals, and (b) since Democrats took control of Washington 18 months ago, they've won the enactment of historic legislation on health care, economic stimulus and financial regulation — no small achievements.